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pmlaw / The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo

A public repo for legal documents related to The Bitcoin Foundation
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Chapter agreements should be made public #11

Open ripper234 opened 10 years ago

ripper234 commented 10 years ago

I have reason to believe that certain agreements that the Foundation signs with its foreign chapters contain a confidentiality clause that prohibits the chapters from discussing the terms of the agreement.

This is wrong. There is no room for backroom deals here.

As a step towards increased transparency, the affiliate/chapter agreements should not include this clause, and should be published somewhere public e.g. the Foundation's forum. This can be added to the bylaws.

mwbitcoin commented 10 years ago

@ripper234 You are correct, the original affiliate agreement has a confidentiality clause which protects both parties. It shouldn't be up to the Foundation to decide if each affiliate agreement is public/private because some chapters may not want to disclose this information.

There is a lot of privacy issues that we are trying to protect. Maybe it's best for the Chapters to decide for themselves if they want to make this public? I'll ask them.

Future: The newest agreement which has been modified based on suggestions from existing affiliates does not have to have a confidentiality clause specifically to "the terms of the agreement" if they choose. This does give each affiliate the choice if they want to make their terms private/public.

As far as viewing the standard agreement, this is also available to any group that is interested in becoming an affiliate and requests the agreement.

ripper234 commented 10 years ago

It shouldn't be up to the Foundation to decide if each affiliate agreement is public/private because some chapters may not want to disclose this information.

I disagree. I think the Foundation should insist on transparency principles in its internal and exterior dealings whenever possible. I realize that it isn't practical to open some things e.g. record every meeting with a government representative ... but agreements signed with chapters do not fall under this IMO. The Foundation and its Chapters must be transparent, or it will lose relevancy and legitimacy.

I would like the latest agreement to be sent to my email at ron@bitcoin.org.il

BTW a nice way to manage semi-private documents is to put them in a private github with an access-control.

pmlaw commented 10 years ago

A private repo would be a good solution.

mwbitcoin commented 10 years ago

@ripper234 Well, I don't believe in mandating something like this, as it would be a top down directive which I'm trying to avoid. It's should be their choice. I will certainly discuss it with our existing affiliates and let them weigh in on it.

ripper234 commented 10 years ago

What if 51% of the affiliates (or 70%, or whatever) would like to enforce this?

On Sat, Jun 7, 2014 at 2:14 AM, M Woods notifications@github.com wrote:

@ripper234 https://github.com/ripper234 Well, I don't believe in mandating something like this, as it would be a top down directive which I'm trying to avoid. It's should be their choice. I will certainly discuss it with our existing affiliates and let them weigh in on it.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/issues/11#issuecomment-45393139 .

Ron Gross Executive Director, Mastercoin Foundation mastercoin.org | ripper234.com | ripper234 on skype (Inbox != Zero http://ripper234.com/p/how-i-learned-to-let-go-of-inbox-zero/) | PGP http://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x7468729E28277264 Schedule my time at meetme.so/RonGross

mwbitcoin commented 10 years ago

Then the next step would be to propose a change based on a group discussion amongst the affiliates with a goal of implementing the outcome.

ripper234 commented 10 years ago

Interesting, I'm looking forward to see how this develops.

On Sat, Jun 7, 2014 at 3:22 AM, M Woods notifications@github.com wrote:

Then the next step would be to propose a change based on a group discussion amongst the affiliates with a goal of implementing the outcome.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/pmlaw/The-Bitcoin-Foundation-Legal-Repo/issues/11#issuecomment-45396078 .

Ron Gross Executive Director, Mastercoin Foundation mastercoin.org | ripper234.com | ripper234 on skype (Inbox != Zero http://ripper234.com/p/how-i-learned-to-let-go-of-inbox-zero/) | PGP http://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x7468729E28277264 Schedule my time at meetme.so/RonGross